Guest editorial: Terror strikes and Trump tweets — sad

The following editorial appeared in The News & Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina:

Presidents are measured by their responses to crises. And in his response to Saturday’s terror attack in London, President Trump came up small.

In a moment that called for sympathy and support, the president instead launched petty and peevish tweets. In one, he criticized the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, a liberal Muslim with whom the president has an ongoing feud. Trump tweeted: “At least 7 dead and 48 wounded in terror attack and Mayor of London says there is ‘no reason to be alarmed.’ ”

Khan was trying to calm his city, but Trump’s tweet was a gross manipulation of what the mayor said and did. The mayor promised, “we will never let (the terrorists) win, nor will we allow them to cower our city.”

Trump simply lost control and blasted away without measuring his words. He even used the tragedy to huff and puff about how “We need to be smart, vigilant and tough. We need the courts to give us back our rights. We need the Travel Ban as an extra level of security.” Oh, yes, the travel ban — the one aimed at six predominantly Muslim countries that’s been repudiated in U.S. courts.

When Trump politicizes a tragedy to push for his travel ban, he weakens himself. The fight against terrorism will take cooperation with allies, not the kind of bullying rhetoric to which Trump seems addicted.

Read or Share this story: http://www.vcstar.com/story/opinion/editorials/2017/06/06/guest-editorial-terror-strikes-and-trump-tweets-sad/376037001/

From The USA TODAY NETWORK

These sites are part of the USA TODAY NETWORK. Their content is produced independently from our newsrooms.